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Way back in 1836, Samuel F. B. Morse, along with Joseph Henry and Alfred Vail, invented an electrical system. Before telephones were invented, it could send messages over long distances by using of electricity to signal a machine to make marks on a moving paper tape.

A was necessary to help the marks on the paper tape into readable text messages. Morse developed the first version of this .

His version included only numbers. Vail soon expanded it to include letters and a few special characters, such as punctuation marks.

The - known as Morse - assigned each number, letter or special character a unique of short and long signals called "dots" and "dashes."

In Morse transmission , the short dot signal is the basic time measurement. A long dash signal is equal to three dots. Each dot or dash is followed by a short silence that's equal to a dot.

If you wonder how they decided which combination of signals was assigned to each letter, they studied how often each letter in the English language was used.

The most used letters were given the shorter sequences of dots and dashes. For example, the most commonly used letter in the English language - E - is represented by a single dot.

The original machines made a clicking noise as they marked the moving paper tape. The paper tape eventually became unnecessary.

operators soon learned that they could the clicks directly into dots and dashes. Later, operators were trained in Morse by studying it as a language that was heard rather than read from a page.

Although Morse originally referred to signals as dots and dashes, operators began to vocalize dots as "dits" and dashes as "dahs" to mimic the sound of Morse receivers.

Today, it's possible to transmit messages in Morse in any way that dots and dashes can be communicated. This includes sounds and lights, as well as printed dots and dashes.

Morse was for communication during World War II. It was also used as an international for communication at sea until 1999, when it was replaced by the Global Safety System. The new system takes advantage of advances in technology, such as satellite communication.

Today, Morse remains popular with radio operators around the world. It is also commonly used for emergency signals. It can be sent in a variety of ways with improvised devices that can be switched easily on and off, such as flashlights.

The international Morse signal ( · · · - - - · · · ) was first used by the German government in 1905 and became the signal around the world just a few years later. The repeated pattern of three dots followed by three dashes was easy to remember and chosen for its simplicity.

In Morse , three dots form the letter S and three dashes form the letter O, so SOS became a way to remember the of the . Later, SOS was associated with certain phrases, such as "save our ship" and "save our souls."

These were just easy ways to remember SOS, though. The letters themselves have no such meaning.

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Way back in 1836, Samuel F. B. Morse, along with Joseph Henry and Alfred Vail, invented an electrical system. Before telephones were invented, it could send messages over long distances by using of electricity to signal a machine to make marks on a moving paper tape.

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Samuel morse

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After attending Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts, Samuel Morse went on to Yale College to receive instruction in the subjects of religious philosophy, mathematics, and science of horses. While at Yale, he attended lectures on electricity from Benjamin Silliman and Jeremiah Day and was a member of the Society of Brothers in Unity.

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Now days people use Morse code as an SOS or if they are lost.  Military people will use it to get ahold of others and let them know the moves.  If you are lost at sea you can easily type in something for SOS for someone to come find you. It was also used as an alternative form of communication for people with disabilities or have their abilities to communicate imparied by stroke, heart attack, or paralysis. There have been many cases where individuals have been able to use their eyelids to communicate in Morse Code by using a series of long and quick blinks to represent that dots and dashes.

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What is Morse Code?

According to the online Merriam Webster Dictionary, Morse Code is defined as, "either of two codes consisting of variously spaced dots and dashes or long and short sounds used for transmitting messages by audible or visual signals."

Basically, Morse Code was a means of early communication using dots and dashes or long and short sounds that correlated to each letter of the Latin alphabet. These messages were typically sent by electric telegraph (also known as a straight key) or by light signals.

The first Morse Code is known as the American Morse Code because that is where it originated, but there are now multiple versions of Morse Code, such as the International Morse Code for languages that also use the Latin Alphabet, the Japanese version the Wabun Code, or the SKATS which is the Korean morse code.

Who Invented American Morse Code?

Samuel Finley Breese Morse is credited with the creation or invention of Morse Code, who it is named after. He was an American inventor who was also a well known painter. He was born on April 27, 1791 in Charlestown. He graduated from Yale in 1810 and began his career as a painter. Samuel Morse helped found the National Academy of Design before he pursued his passion of invention.

In the 1830's, Morse began work on the first electrical telegraph, which was a means of communicating using electricity. He received his first patent for the electrical telegraph in 1837.

How does it work?

Morse Code was used to send messages over long distances. Morse code messages can be sent using light or by pulses. In Samuel Morse's time, the most common way to send a pulse message was via a telegraph. A telegraph, also known as a straight key, sends pulses in the form of electrical current based on the message that was "tapped out" using the telegraph key.

Telegraph operators would then key messages using a series of clicks based on the spelling of the words of the messages. An operator on the receiving end would hear the clicks and translate them back into words.

With Morse Code, each letter of the alphabet was translated into short and long signals (also known as dots and dashes). The pulse length of a dash is equal to the pulse length of three dots. Eventually, when Morse Code was adapted to radio, the dots and dashes began being referred to as "dits" and "dahs" based on the sound of the radio pulses.

Morse Code By Sea

What was the Importance of Morse Code?

Before the invention of Morse Code and the telegraph, messages were still handwritten and carried by horseback. Morse Code changed the way we communicated. In the time of its invention, it was the fastest long distance form of communication.

Morse Code allowed for ships at sea to communicate over long distances using large lights. Morse Code was especially pivotal during the second World War because it greatly improved the speed of communication. Naval war ships were able to communicate with their bases and provide critical information to each other. War planes also used Morse Code to detail locations for enemy ships, bases, and troops and relay them back to headquarters.

The Universal Code for SOS

The most commonly used signal for distress is SOS in Morse Code. It is represented as
. . . - - - . . . (Three dots, followed by three dashes, followed by another three dots)

Is Morse Code Still Used Today?

Morse Code is still widely recognized, even if it is not as widely used as it once was. Morse code is still popular among amateur radio enthusiasts, although proficiency in Morse Code is no longer a requirement to obtain your amateur radio license.

Morse Code is most prevalent in Aviation and Aeronautical fields since radio navigational aids such as VOR's and NDB's still identify in Morse Code. The US Navy and Coast Guard still use signal lamps to communicate via Morse Code.

Morse Code has also been used as an alternative form of communication for people with disabilities or whom have their abilities to communicate imparied by stroke, heart attack, or paralysis. There have been several cases where individuals have been able to use their eyelids to communicate in Morse Code by using a series of long and quick blinks to represent that dots and dashes.

How to send an SOS using Morse Code

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Is Morse Code Used Today? - The Brief History and Importance of Morse Code

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According to the online Merriam Webster Dictionary, Morse Code is defined as, "either of two codes consisting of variously spaced dots and dashes or long and short sounds used for transmitting messages by audible or visual signals."

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It worked by transmitting electrical signals over a wire laid between stations.  It revolutionized how information was transmitted across long distances, ancient civilizations like in China, Egypt and Greece used drumbeats or smoke signals to exchange information between far-flung points.  We used Morse Code instead and it got around internationally as well.

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Early Forms of Long-Distance Communication

Before the development of the electric telegraph in the 19th century revolutionized how information was transmitted across long distances, ancient civilizations such as those in China, Egypt and Greece used drumbeats, signal fires or smoke signals to exchange information between far-flung points.

However, such methods were limited by the weather and the need for an uninterrupted line of sight between receptor points. These limitations also lessened the effectiveness of the semaphore, a modern precursor to the electric telegraph. Developed in the early 1790s, the semaphore consisted of a series of hilltop stations that each had large movable arms to signal letters and numbers and two telescopes with which to see the other stations.

Like ancient smoke signals, the semaphore was susceptible to weather and other factors that hindered visibility. A different method of transmitting information was needed to make regular and reliable long-distance communication workable.

Did you know? SOS, the internationally recognized distress signal, does not stand for any particular words. Instead, the letters were chosen because they are easy to transmit in Morse code: "S" is three dots, and "O" is three dashes.

The Electric Telegraph

In the early 19th century, two developments in the field of electricity opened the door to the production of the electric telegraph. First, in 1800, the Italian physicist Alessandro Volta invented the battery, which reliably stored an electric current and allowed the current to be used in a controlled environment.

Second, in 1820, the Danish physicist Hans Christian Oersted demonstrated the connection between electricity and magnetism by deflecting a magnetic needle with an electric current.

Samuel Morse

While scientists and inventors across the world began experimenting with batteries and the principles of electromagnetism to develop some kind of communication system, the credit for inventing the telegraph generally falls to two sets of researchers: William Cooke and Charles Wheatstone in England, and Samuel Morse, Leonard Gale and Alfred Vail in the United States.

In the 1830s, the British team of Cooke and Wheatstone developed a telegraph system with five magnetic needles that could be pointed around a panel of letters and numbers by using an electric current. Their system was soon being used for railroad signaling in Britain.

During this time period, the Massachusetts-born, Yale-educated Morse (who began his career as a painter), worked to develop an electric telegraph of his own. He reportedly had become intrigued with the idea after hearing a conversation about electromagnetism while sailing from Europe to America in the early 1830s, and later learned more about the topic from American physicist Joseph Henry.

In collaboration with Gale and Vail, Morse eventually produced a single-circuit telegraph that worked by pushing the operator key down to complete the electric circuit of the battery. This action sent the electric signal across a wire to a receiver at the other end. All the system needed was a key, a battery, wire and a receiver.

Morse Code

To transmit messages across telegraph wires, in the 1830s Morse and Vail created what came to be known as Morse code. The code assigned letters in the alphabet and numbers a set of dots (short marks) and dashes (long marks) based on the frequency of use; letters used often (such as "E") got a simple code, while those used infrequently (such as "Q") got a longer and more complex code.

Initially, the code, when transmitted over the telegraph system, was rendered as marks on a piece of paper that the telegraph operator would then translate back into English. Rather quickly, however, it became apparent that the operators were able to hear and understand the code just by listening to the clicking of the receiver, so the paper was replaced by a receiver that created more pronounced beeping sounds.

Western Union

In 1843, Morse and Vail received funding from the U.S. Congress to set up and test their telegraph system between Washington, D.C., and Baltimore, Maryland. On May 24, 1844, Morse sent Vail the historic first message: "What hath God wrought!" The telegraph system subsequently spread across America and the world, aided by further innovations.

Among these improvements was the invention of good insulation for telegraph wires. The man behind this innovation was Ezra Cornell, one of the founders of the university in New York that bears his name. Another improvement, by the famed inventor Thomas Edison in 1874, was the Quadruplex system, which allowed for four messages to be transmitted simultaneously using the same wire.

Use of the telegraph was quickly accepted by people eager for a faster and easier way of sending and receiving information. However, widespread and successful use of the device required a unified system of telegraph stations among which information could be transmitted.

The Western Union Telegraphy Company, founded in 1856 in part by Cornell, was at first only one of many such companies that developed around the new medium during the 1850s. By 1861, however, Western Union had laid the first transcontinental telegraph line, making it the first nationwide telegraph company.

Rise and Decline of the Telegraph System

Telegraph systems, a key innovation during the Industrial Revolution, soon spread across the world. Extensive systems appeared across Europe by the later part of the 19th century, and by 1866 the first permanent telegraph cable had been successfully laid across the Atlantic Ocean; there were 40 such telegraph lines across the Atlantic by 1940.

The electric telegraph transformed how wars were fought, how money was sent and how newspapers conducted business. Rather than taking weeks to be delivered by horse-and-carriage mail carts, pieces of news could be exchanged between telegraph stations almost instantly. The telegraph also had a profound economic effect, allowing money to be "wired" across great distances.

Telegrams, often delivered to homes and businesses by delivery boys, were a popular way of communicating during the 1920s and 1930s, when long-distance calls were more expensive than a telegram. Western Union was famous for messages hand-delivered inside its signature yellow envelopes.

By the end of the 19th century, however, new technologies such as the telephone began to emerge. In time, these technologies would overshadow the telegraph, which would fall out of regular widespread usage.

In 2006, Western Union officially ended its telegram service after 150 years. Although the telegraph has since been replaced by the even more convenient telephone, fax machine and Internet, it laid the groundwork for the communications revolution that led to those later innovations.

Sources

Invention of the Telegraph. Library of Congress.
A History of Telegraphy. Pens.co.uk.
Telegram Passes Into History. Wired Magazine.

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Morse Code & Telegraph: Invention & Samuel Morse - HISTORY

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The telegraph and Morse code revolutionized long-distance communication after their invention in the 1800s by Samuel Morse and other inventors.

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Invented by Samuel Morse he was one of USA’s foremost patriot painter.  Morse code was used for many years, and provided a form of communication.  People used to even called it the Victorian Internet because it enabled world-wide communications in a way never before possible.

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Morse Code Facts | First Morse Code Message etc | Electronics Notes

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Interesting facts, & figures about Morse code, telegraph: history, records etc. - everything including the content of the first message sent in Morse code.

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Morse code